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Gabi Delgado - An Obituary

Gabi Delgado – Singer, DJ

Born April 18, 1958; died March 22, 2020

Gabi Delgado, who has died aged 61, was the mercurial frontman of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (German American Friendship), the band he formed in Dusseldorf with Robert Gorl in 1978. Initially a quintet before stripping things back to a core duo of Delgado and Gorl, DAF produced a muscular and at times menacing form of rhythm-led electronica, over which Delgado declaimed, howled and provoked. The result was an intense, sensual and at times relentless brutalist assault of pumped-up primitivist punk-disco that pre-dated hardcore techno.

Gabriel Delgado-Lopez was born in Cordoba, Spain, before his family moved to Germany. Delgado and Gorl met at a punk club, and after forming DAF, briefly left the band prior to its debut album, Ein Produkt der Deutsch Amerikanischen Freundschaft (A Product of German American Friendship), a set of improvised instrumentals.

The band moved to London in 1980, by which time a version of Ich Und Die Wirklichkeit (Me and Reality) had appeared on one side of Edinburgh record label Fast Product’s Earcom 3 double 7-inch vinyl compilation. Their second album, Die Kleinen und die Bosen (The Small and the Evil) was the first full-length release on Daniel Miller’s Mute label before the now two-piece moved to Virgin for Alles ist Gut (Everything is Fine (1981), Gold und Liebe (Gold and Love) (1981) and Fur Immer (Forever) (1982).

Delgado moved to Zurich, and released his solo album, Mistress (1984), before reuniting with Gorl in 1986 for DAF’s 1st Step to Heaven album. The same year he moved to Berlin to become a DJ, and over the next three decades released records, first with Saba Komossa as Delkom, and, with Wotan Wile Mohring, as Der DAF/DOS. Delgado reunited once more with Gorl in 2003 for Funfzehn neue D.A.F. –Lieder (Fifteen New D.A.F. Songs).

The Herald, April ??th 2020

ends



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